1. Technical Field
The invention relates to printing documents in a computer environment.
More particularly, the invention relates to the specification, storage, and printing of background textures for proof printing in a computer environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are several different levels of end-users in the printing arena. High-end users require a printing press environment using equipment such as offset printers or large-bed inkjet printers to create their final products. Mid to low-end users do not have a need for high quality professional printing. Laser printers and low cost inkjet printers will satisfy for their general needs.
Printing press environment customers have specialized demands. Some customers print their jobs on different materials such as metal, fabrics, and textiles. These customers do not know what the final product looks like until the job is printed on the actual media.
The printing process involves sending a file containing the document to an image setter or plate setter printer. The image setter printers transfer the job to film before burning it to plate. Plate setter printers transfer the job directly to plate. The plates are used to print the job on the desired media using a professional printing press. Typically, the final product is sent to the customer for proofing and finalization. Mistakes or unwanted results are expensive and a waste of the media.
Consumer and most business computer users print their jobs on relatively low-cost laser printers and ink jet printers. The media is typically paper and mistakes or unwanted results are fairly inexpensive. Corrections can be performed immediately within the appropriate application program with a short turn-around time from correction to print.
It would be highly desirable for the printing press customers to be able to proof their print jobs on paper-based printers. The only drawback is that, using paper-based printers, the printing press customer does not get a realistic reproduction of his print job. The specialized print media that the printing press customer uses has certain characteristics that cause the print job to appear differently on white or colored paper than on the specialized print media.
Some approaches allow printing press customers to proof their print jobs on paper-based printers. However, these approaches do not allow for a consistent, reproducible method that realistically simulates the printing press customer's specialized print media.
A few of the approaches generate their own pattern type of output without using the Postscript pattern language by printing a large number of small images across the document's background. Other approaches require that the user define an image that covers the entire area of the job. These approaches are very inefficient because they create very large files which extend the download time to the printer and increase processing and memory demands on the printer.
It would be advantageous to provide a spot color pattern system that allows users to proof print jobs that require specialized print media on paper-based printers. It would further be advantageous to provide a spot color pattern system that allows users to define custom textures that match their specialized print media.